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Among men of his age I have not come across one who, calm beneath the crushing weight of such cases as his, faced
duty with such devotion as Mudaliar K.C.B. Kumarakulasinghe.
In 1883, upon the death of his father, he, as the eldest son, was called upon to bear the burden of the care of
his brothers and sisters. The family properties at Tellipalai were all heavily encumbered without the least chance
of redemption The duty of not merely retrieving the property reputation of the family, but also of averting the
calamity of destitution, was his. He felt it also while grief from the untimely death of his distinguished father
was still fresh in his mind. He felt called upon to make sacrifices. He began by giving up his law studies which
he had begun in 1881 after a thorough educational course at the Colombo Academy, and ever since then his whole
life was one long spell of self-denial and service. In 1884 he was appointed, through the sympathetic interest
of Mr. Elliott, Government Agent, on his behalf, interpreter to the Paddy Commutation Commissioner, Batticaloa.
From there, by his steady, purposeful application to work, his untiring industry, and his suave, genial ways,
he speedily rose in 1887 to be the Chief Tamil Interpreter to Government. On May 24 1893 he was invested with
the rank of Mudaliar of the Governor's Gate, the highest titular honour within the reach of a [Tamil] native chief.
The emoluments of his office did not go to fill his coffers. The family lands were redeemed, the brothers and
sisters educated and provided for, and all duties as the head of a family dependent on him, were faithfully fulfilled.
His younger sisters were comfortably married out, and three of his brothers were put in positions of trust under
Government.
Upon his youngest brother Chellam he ungrudgingly spent his love and wealth, to give him that education and training
which finally fitted him for an English University career. In addition to the scholarship that kept Chellam at
Oxford, there was need of good sums of money every week on various accounts. The eldest brother spent liberally.
Alas, the golden promise slowly maturing into fulfilment under so much care and toil and much spending was, in
the life time of the Mudaliar, doomed not to reach fruition. Chellam's death was a severe blow to the Mudaliar,
who, to his dying day, ceased not to feel bitterly the pang of his great grief, great disappointment. He had
hoped for much. Hope was cruelly crushed within him. By day and by night the shattering of the bright visions
with which he had surrounded the promises of his youngest brother's career was an ever-present sorrow. He survived
Chellam by three short years of sorrow. Upon his death, deeply lamented by all classes of Ceylonese, the following
Gazette notice was issued by Government:
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HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR desires that public expression may be given to the regret caused
by the death of Mr. KANAKANAYAKAM CHARLES BARR KUMARAKULASINKAM Mudaliar of the Governor's Gate, Tamil Interpreter
to the Governor and Chief Tamil Translator to Government. The late Mr. Kumarakulasinkam entered the Public Service
in 1886 and by his personal character and loyalty to Government did honour to the community to which he belonged,
and has left behind him an example which His Excellency trusts will serve as an encouragement to younger generations
of his countrymen.
By His Excellency's Command
EVERARD IM THURN
Colonial Secretary
Colonial Secretary's Office
Colombo, June 9, 1903
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The Mudaliar was the eldest son of his father. The following reference to him is from Sir Roper Lethbridge's
Golden Book of India and Ceylon.
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Kanakanayakam Charles Barr Kumarakulasinghe Mudaliar of the Governor's Gate, born February 2 1862,
belongs to the Kumarakulasinghe family of Jaffna. One of his Ancestors received the title "Irumarupuntuyya
Kumarakulasinghe Mudaliar" from the Dutch Government in 1765 in recognition of his position as a direct descendant
of the ancient kings of Jaffna. |
His noble appearance, manly bearing, and sustained dignity were such as rendered the historicity of the Dutch
recognition authentic. Apart from, and independent of, such attestation, well founded or legendary, the intrinsic
nobility of his character was royal enough to command universal simple faith worth more than royal lineage. Ready
to render assistance to any one in need, to go out of his way to help those in difficulties, to give counsel, comfort
and material aid, he was ever accessible to many and many a man, in whose love his memory is enshrined to this
day. He missed no opportunity to do good. His life was actuated by the basic principles of self-denial and service.
Reference has already been made to his self-denial in respect of his brothers and sisters.
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I am in no way impatient. I am naturally anxious. I am not unbelieving. On the day that Chellam
left home for England I had cheerfully committed my darling boy to the care of the All-Gracious. I am only eager
to know, as a mother well may be, all that is possible to know about my child. |
After doing all for them, he chose a wife for himself, in the person of Orrie Emma, daughter of the Rev. Levi Wood
of America. His wedded life was a happy one. A daughter and son added joy to joy, and, after his death, another,
the very image of his likeness, was born. But nowhere in a single family have the ways of God been declared, with
such awful emphasis, not to be the ways of man, as in the tragic suddenness of the fate of the three children in
May 1906. A broken-hearted mother, so smitten with desolation of spirit, is the sole survivor of the wreck of
a family.
The Mudaliar's faith, so strong in suffering, so triumphant under trial, was his always. His reliance upon God
was so unworldly as to be deemed to be unwise. He took no thought for the morrow. His religion was evangelical
to the extreme, and his active service in the Master's work, begun in 1889, was unremittingly carried on with such
ardour as once early made him forsake all -his high official position and the fascinating prospects of it -and
follow in the wake of the Great Renunciation.
The Mudaliar was a man of great culture, well-informed and much read. In his latter years his reading was almost
exclusively limited to the literature of religion and devotion. The saints of Hinduism, especially Thayamanavar,
were closely studied by him, he bringing to bear upon the understanding and appreciation of their writings, his
close acquaintance with Eastern and Western modes of thought. The study of religious and devotional literature
led to practical results in him, steadying and stimulating the religious life which he began with his conversion
in 1889. It bore fruit in another way. The poetic talent which he had inherited from his father, he put to the
sacred use of devotion. His translations of English hymns, and original compositions in Tamil, are a worthy addition
to Tamil Christian hymnology.
That a life so useful, so helpful to others, so worthy of the glad service for Christ, should have been cut short
at the early age of forty two, is one of those mysteries which time cannot explain -and the sad sequel is more
mysterious.
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I want these flowers for a crown
Where they will never fade, nor taint
Of earth can touch them, but will be
Immortal in no crown of saint
But in the glory of my God. . |
Mrs. Kumarakulasinghe left her native land a maid alone, and when, after many years, she went back in 1906, she
was destined to reach it a widow, as alone as before, nay, with a loneliness more intensely lone. The children
contracted scarlet fever on board while crossing the Atlantic. The youngest was buried at sea, and the other two
ashore at Brooklyn. It was a sad, very sad, sudden desolation, sweeping away into the unknown all that a widow
was left for a season to love and to live for.
The mother's feelings are best given in her own words in an article in the Free Methodist, September 25, 1906.
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Agilanda Catherine came to us a wee mite of a thing, but she developed into an ordinary sized girl,
with large, dark eyes, dark curls, and always a very womanly mien.
Charlie, for he was named after his father, was a bright, fat baby, but when he was a year old he had a very serious
sickness which left him never as strong again after that. He had a fine intellect though, and at seven years
of age had so far advanced in his studies that he could do difficult sums in long division; and if he once tackled
a sum he would not give up until it was finished correctly.
Willie was our baby, and he came a little while after his father's death, and was truly our joy, the children's
as well as mine. Of a bright, happy, lively disposition, intense in everything that he did, and with a great
kind heart, he seemed to be just what we needed in the home, where sorrow of his father's departure was still so
keenly felt. Truly he was a gift of God to us, my darling, happy baby.
But just as they seemingly had become the most to me [and we were everything to each other], that ruthless destroyer,
shall I say -no -reaper, garnered them in and in one short month my precious treasures were no more, no more
to be seen by me on earth; though beyond my conception, I believe, happy, radiantly happy. But oh, the empty
mother's arms!
Oh my baby, my precious little boy! How he used to wake out of his sleep and say, 'Mamma, I love you'; but the
Father has them all. I wanted them, but they are delivered out of this present evil world. My baby boy lies in
the waters of the Atlantic; but the earth and the sea shall give up their dead. How they suffered, but I wanted
them still. Now they are gone, I thank God that they are better off. Though they were my own children, I must
say that they were exceptionally intelligent and good. It was the father's intelligence they inherited. But
they live and move and will go on progressing to all eternity. They got a good start here only to be continued.
My darlings, all, all gone Oh, may my life be for the rest of it 'Thy kingdom come.' I do not say it selfishly,
but they will come with the King.
Before dying my Thamby-boy [the second child], who had reached his eighth birthday four days before, asked me 'Mamma,
may I go and play with baby [baby had gone before him]? 'Yes darling,' I said. Then he said, as if addressing
his brother, 'You go first, I will go second, and Agil [his sister] will go third. And it was. A little after,
I wrote on a piece of paper, 'Do you like to go to be with Jesus, and the angels, and papa?'; and with full consciousness
he said cheerfully, 'Yes, I like to go, mamma; do you like it?', for he never wished to do anything unless he
thought I liked it. I could say nothing. My Agil [Catherine] asked for a piece of paper and wrote, 'I love Jesus
more than tongue can tell.' I wrote, asking, 'Do you like to live or do you like to go to heaven?' She wrote,
'I like to do what God wishes'; and another time, 'I would like to stay with you as long as I can, do you understand,
mother dear?', and so this lonely place of suffering [and God only knows what agony of heart I have passed through,
not so much since, but before they went] has been a Bethel to me. My heart bleeds still, but I know that God makes
no mistakes. I look through the cloud to Him and I see His face.
And I can echo, Oh, the empty mother's arms, but I know they are taken from the evil to come. It was my daily
and nightly watch that the enemy should not sow tares in my field of wheat. AND HE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO DO IT.
How much I loved them I only now know; and that love draws me as with an irresistible attraction to heaven.* *
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What does God mean by all this -Chellam's death at a time when life was so full of promise; his brother's when
he was yet sorely needed on earth; that of the three dear little innocents, in their second, eighth and tenth
years, when they might have been left to live to keep alive their father's name and be the sunshine and solace
of the latter days of their mother's widowhood? We know not anything -we only know that the Loving Father doeth
all things well. To Him be praise, praise though our eyes are tearful, and our hearts are heavy.
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